At home, at work, or among friends, Turkish coffee is drank all over the Middle East, every day. Some believe the left-over grinds can predict the future.
Café Turkí or Turkish coffee is taken for granted all through the Middle East. It’s the daily comfort of the people, always cheap and always on hand. Even tastier with a dash of fresh cardomon.
Eco coffee drinkers can even find organic Turkish coffee or use fair trade coffee beans bought in health food stores and some cafés. You can always buy the beans and then just order the size of the grind.
Traditionally, Turkish coffee is made in a finjan (seen above). It’s a special pot with a long handle, wider at the bottom so that most of the grounds stay behind when you pour the coffee out. You add the coffee, add water and boil it over a stove. In the Middle East, they’re commonly available. But if you don’t have a finjan, any small pot still makes good coffee.
Make your Turkish coffee from any bean you like. The important thing is that it be finely ground like espresso. A coarse grind won’t give you the aroma and flavor of the real thing. Some locals in Jaffa swear by burnt coffee. We find it too edgy. But go with your palette.
What is cardamom?
You’ll often get a whiff of cardamom in the coffee as you go past someone’s steaming cup. This recipe includes the spice known as “hawaij” for you to use at your discretion. We like to chew on the bits that float, but it’s all a matter of taste. The world is often divided up by those who love corriander and those who hate it. The cardamom spice is no different.
Cardamom, sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genera Elettaria and Amomum in the family Zingiberaceae.
Turkish Coffee Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 cup cold water
- 1 heaping teaspoon extra finely ground coffee – experiment with less or more, according to taste
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 2 teaspoons sugar
Method:
1. Bring water and sugar to a boil in the pot.
2. Remove from heat and add coffee and cardamom.
3. Return pot to the heat and allow the coffee to come to a boil, while stirring. Remove from the heat when the coffee foams.
4. Pour the coffee into a cup or glass. Drink immediately; the finest aroma is considered to be in the head of froth.
You can add some milk or oat milk, but typically Turkish coffee is always drunk black.
Enjoy!
What you describe is actually called cafe botz or mud coffee in Israel. I spent time in the reserves in Israel including being out in the desert with the bedouin which is where I learned how to make cafe turki as it is called. The real thing is to put the coffee with the sugar and the water (cold) all in the pot and then put it over a low to medium flame. The water will slowly come to a boil with the coffee forming a thick brown “cap” on the surface which seals in the heat and the flavor. At a critical point the coffee will begin to “rise” up into the neck of the pot, this is when you pour it before it boils over. Some people take the pot off the flame when the coffee rises and then put it back and let it rise one two or three more times. Start with the water cold for turkish coffee and add the coffee to water already heated for the mud coffee which is instant coffee made with the turkish grind. If you boil the water first and then add coffee and put it back over the flame it will cook up too soon and you won’t get the real effect.
You can also make Turkish coffee “express” without the finjan. Buy finely grounded coffee or a package that says Turkish coffee, put a heaping teaspoon of coffee, then a bit more in a coffee cup. Fill it up with boiling hot water (hot is the key). Stir for about 15 seconds, then add sugar to taste. If you do it this way, never, ever, add the sugar with the coffee grounds. If you do, they won’t settle right in the bottom of the cup. Sugar always goes last and prepare your teeth to filter out some of the grinds as you near the bottom of the cup.